When I was 21 I travelled around Australia. On my own. For a year. In my little red three-door Hyundai with a tent in the back.

I went up the centre and worked in a remote roadhouse in a small Aboriginal community; I sold movie vouchers door-to-door in Darwin; I meandered across to Broome and down the west coast to Perth, where I supervised floor staff in a massive Northbridge restaurant. I drove home across the surprisingly beautiful Nullabor.